Chapter 11: Bottle Green

Coralie's POV

Brynn came to the Taft house with cookies and went home with my arm through hers.

I had been in the hall when she walked in, looking at old photographs of the family on the water.

She hugged me, and she smelled of roses.

"I know I haven't been fair to you," she said.

"I want to start over. Let me take you shopping for the gala. It's the only way I know to say sorry."

Behind her, down the corridor, Winifred stood in the study doorway with her cane planted.

She said nothing.

Her eyes told me to go.

So I went.

The boutique on Pine Street had one fitting room the size of a bedroom.

Its saleswoman held up dresses I could not have worn at fifteen.

"Size four," she said hopefully.

"Fourteen," I said.

"Oh. Of course."

She brought four dresses in my size, and Brynn clapped for every one.

I tried on a deep bottle-green one with a square neck and long sleeves.

I stopped in front of the mirror.

I looked like a woman who owned a chair at the head of a table.

"Oh, Coralie," said Brynn, in the doorway behind me. "You look beautiful."

She meant it.

That was the strange part.

She looked at me in the mirror with her head tilted, her eyes soft.

"I wish we could have grown up together," she said. "I'd have made you laugh."

"Would you?"

"I'm very funny at home." Her smile faltered. "Everyone thinks I'm sweet. Nobody knows I'm funny."

I almost felt sorry for her.

Then she put one hand on my shoulder.

"You should wear the green to the gala," she said lightly. "Green's a Taft color. Winslow's great-grandmother will love it."

Keep reading free with an account. Start The Real Heiress Returns Five Brothers on Their Knees from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.